Pheonix Rising
by Oniko
Summary: The Negaverse returns to take over the solar system over three thousand years in the furture, after the fall of Crystal Tokyo. A darker version of the Sailor Moon Universe. In revision.
1.

AN: I know it is customary to have a brief introduction, although I personally prefer for a story to speak for itself so I'll toss up a few brief words and the authors comments for following chapters will be at the end. This story takes place after the fall of Crystal Tokyo. (Which lasted itself about a thousand years.) The p.o.v. character is Neflyte and picks up right after the attack in the park. Is anyone confused yet? It all gets explained in, chapter three, I believe. My interpretations of the characters may be harsher then in the show. And I'm not out to intentionally bash any one character, all of them have their fair share of mental problems here or I dropped the ball and the character got ignored. Managing ten main characters is a juggling act I've never tried before so someone may get shoved aside. When it comes to names I do use both Japanese and North American versions they are used to help distinguish the three different periods involved. The Silver Millennium uses the Japanese versions and the modern day Sailor Moon gets the North American ones. The current setting for my story gets original names. Now I have only seen the North American version and what little I know of the others is from reading other fan-fic myself so I tried not to depend on that for a strong source of information. I tried to stick as close as could to the original storyline and you can assume things happened like in the show unless I say otherwise. Things may be changed for one of two reasons 1) I couldn't remember, so I made it up and I apologize for my faulty memory or 2) It interfered with the story I was writing so I changed it, for which I claim artistic license. As for claiming artistic license, I claim nothing of the Sailor Moon characters, just my twisted plot, as someone else created them. I had initially written this story under another pen name but decided to post it here on ffnet in hopes of some feedback. Please review, I love reviews.  
  
  
  
:.  
  
The Pheonix Rises  
  
Created by Naoko Takeuchi  
  
Written by Oniko  
  
Chapter One  
  
He lay dying at her feet. Soft motes of multi-colored light still sparkled around his torn and battered body and reflected in a spreading pool of his blood. He lay still and silent except for a soft rasping breath that slipped through his lips. She knelt down next to him, warm blood seeping through her cloak and dress, and lay a sword between them.  
  
"Neflyte. I can help you." She called to him. She brushed his hair out of his face and leaned over him, concerned. Could he even hear her? She let her fingers trail down and caress his cheek. There was a flicker of a closed eye-lid but then nothing. More urgently, "Neflyte."  
  
He stirred, his eyes flickered open but they stared forward seeing something other then the trees overhead. He attempted to speak, to call out a name but only a moan escaped his lips.  
  
"Neflyte, look at me." she commanded. He turned to the sound of her voice but took several long moments before truly seeing her. When he did question and worry filled his eyes.  
  
"You are safe." She assured him. He closed his eyes again and fought the pain back. When he opened his eyes a few moments later they were clearer then before, his control was impressive. "Who are you?" he asked, then "I am dying."  
  
"Yes, but you may live." She said ignoring his question.  
  
"Why?" he whispered. "Why help me?"  
  
"You've no time to learn that tale. Would you rather live or die?" She said. He closed his eyes as a wave of pain broke through his barrier, when again he had control he whispered. "What price will you demand of me?"  
  
"Clever, Neflyte. But you have no time. We shall discuss payment later, once you are better." She paused and studied him intensely, then repeated. "Would you live or die?"  
  
"Live, I would live." She picked up the Sword and lay it with the hilt on his chest, then placed his right hand over the worn leather.  
  
"This artifact has the power to heal you, if you know the correct phrase." He sat up slightly wincing at the pain the movement caused him and stared into the pale crystal in the pommel of the Sword.  
  
"What are the words?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Then how can I use it?"  
  
"You need to figure that out."  
  
"If I fail?"  
  
"Then you die." She got up and walked away, leaving him with the Sword. With her words still echoing in his ears, Neflyte stared into the small crystal set in the pommel of the Sword. It glowed with a pale white fire from deep within. He traced the edges of the facets lightly with his fingers. His blood darkened the crystal but the flame within burned even brighter. Words formed in his mind, a pale fire that burned the pain away. He closed his hand over the hilt, tore his eyes away from the crystal, and whispered to himself.  
  
"What if it doesn't work?" But her voice echoed back at him, then you die. "I die anyway, but can I pay her price if I live?  
  
"Healing Flames . . . Cleanse!" He screamed as white fire consumed him, burning away everything that he was, burning him to ash. Then, as the Phoenix rises from the flames, so too, was he resurrected. Memories flooded into him of a kingdom lost long ago, and a war, and failure. And always, wherever his dreams of memory took him he was haunted by emerald green eyes.  
  
He awoke slowly. Shaking the dreams off was difficult but he eventually awoke to find himself in a large room without any knowledge of how he came to be here. The low ceiling and smoky fire gave the place a heavy confining feel. There were other people in the room as well; most of them were, like he was, lying on a simple pallet on the floor. There was one young woman who was moving around, tending to those on the pallets. She was slender and her blue hair was cropped short. Memories tugged at him, he should know her but the answers eluded him. She gently administering to each of the broken bodies that she passed, eventually she made her way over to him.  
  
"Watch my finger." she said and began moving it back and forth in front of him. He ignored her moving hands and studied her face. Why does she seem so familiar?  
  
"Who are you?" he asked.  
  
"Amis, and you?"  
  
"I am Neflyte." Neflyte replied. "Where is this place?"  
  
"This is my home," she said. "I take care of the sick and the wounded. Any who come in peace are welcome." She recited it like an old worn phrase useless, meaningless but still said.  
  
"How did I come here?" he asked.  
  
"You don't remember?" He shook his head "I found you lying on my doorstep. There was nothing apparently wrong with you but you wouldn't awaken for days. What happened?"  
  
"I don't know . . . I was in a park . . . "  
  
"Well you obviously weren't on this moon." She snorted "Did someone hate you enough to just drop you in this hell?"  
  
"Moon? Last I knew I was on earth," he said.  
  
"You traveled a long way to lay on my doorstep. You're on  
  
Io."  
  
A moment of confusion, and a vague sense that he knew that name, when older memories trickled to the surface. Io was one of Jupiter's moons, an extremely dangerous place to be. There had been rumors of an ancient artifact was buried here somewhere, it was full of magic and hate. He flinched away from those thoughts. If even some of those rumors were true he had leave this place soon. He had no wish to return to the negaverse now that he was finally free of it.  
  
"How could you have gotten here?" She asked  
  
He thought for a moment, trying to come up with some explanation. "I was attacked in a park. I was dying."  
  
"Who attacked you?" She asked.  
  
"Four of Zoicite's minions."  
  
"Zoicite? A strange name." She said. He studied her unreadable face carefully before replying evasively "A strange man."  
  
She frowned at him then prompted, "You were dying."  
  
"Yes. I could feel my life flowing out of me when magic twisted the air. There was this woman who said she could heal me . . ." The words that he didn't say tore at his throat. How he was prepared to rest at peace knowing that Molly was safe with her friend Sailor Moon, Serena. But he didn't say them fearing that he might have said too much already.  
  
"Who was she? What did she look like?"  
  
"She didn't give me her name. She was dressed in a cloak and I couldn't see much of her. She said that she had an artifact that she could use to heal me. It was a sword; I needed to have a phrase to channel the power for healing. She wouldn't tell it to me, I had to figure it out on my own."  
  
"How did you learn the phrase?" she prompted him again as he paused, curiosity alight in her face.  
  
"The sword told me . . .as I held it the words formed in my mind."  
  
"Where is the sword now? I would give anything to be able to study it." She added the last with a wistful tone in her voice. And for the first time since awakening he realized that he did not have the sword. His eyes grew wide with panic.  
  
"It wasn't found with me?' Amis shook her head. "Then that woman must have taken it back." He felt a pang of loss. The sword was meant to be his he was sure of it. Amis patted his hand reassuringly.  
  
"I'm sure it's safe. Strong artifacts like that usually have some kind of safeguard. But you need to get some rest. Magical healing gives you a false burst of energy, if you don't rest it can be fatal." He nodded and lay down without complaint; he could feel an underlying exhaustion tugging him down.  
  
It had seemed only a few moments before he awoke, the hall was dark with the fires banked low. As Neflyte sat up and looked around he heard a soft voice calling to him from outside. He recognized the voice of the mysterious woman who gave him the sword. He couldn't help but wonder if she had come to claim his debt. Slowly he rose from the pallet, his legs felt stiff and sore from laying down too long. Outside the air was cool and refreshing but it had a strange metallic tang that tickled the back of his throat. The entrance to Amis' home lay hidden behind a tangle of vines that bore blood red berries the size of his thumb. In fact most of the plants seemed to be bearing some type of fruit or berries but the entire garden looked like it had grown wild there, the work of a very skilled gardener. As he came around full circle she stood there by the doorway. She wore a black cloak and the hood was up shading her eyes from the pale golden light that shone down from Jupiter.  
  
"Who are you?" He asked her.  
  
"I have a quest for you." She said as if he hadn't spoken.  
  
"Is that what you claim for my debt?" he asked.  
  
"Perhaps." her lips curved into a small enigmatic smile "If you survive." She faded slowly away before she vanished completely she threw something to the ground. Slowly, so slowly he was not sure at first of what he saw, the vines began to twist and writhe. The red berries shifted and blurred and were instead tiny maws that stretched open to show needle like teeth. He was entranced by the twisting vines until a sharp pain in his leg jerked him back to awareness. A small thin vine had imbedded its teeth into his calf. He jerked back his leg and the vine snapped, leaving the head in his leg. Looking up there were a dozen more vines snaking through the grass towards him. He backed up away from them and slammed into a wall. Looking behind him there was nothing there, yet he leaned against a wall as solid as stone. He looked up just in time to avoid a thicker vine that streaked out through the air. The vines began to swarm around him and biting when they could and held on. He kept on moving and flaying his arms to tear them away. Suddenly the sword was in his hands, he almost dropped it in shock, but long years of training took over his body's reaction and the sword spun in graceful arcs. With each swing a number of vines were sliced through and none got past his steel barrier. Within moments the barrage of vines had lessened. With that respite, he had time to study the creature. The core of the vine plant was pulsating with a sickly green light and new vines were beginning to streak outwards towards him. He felt an odd sensation that he was outside of his body and was watching as another controlled it. He could feel the energy being collected and channeled through the crystal and down into the tempered blade. When the crystal blazed with white fire his body pointed the Sword at the vine's core and shouted the trigger phrase  
  
"Healing Fires Cleanse!" Pale light flowed from the sword-tip like water and where it touched the vines they turned to fine gray ash and scattered in the light breeze. The light blazed up, temporarily blinding him. When his sight returned the vines were once again normal and his body once again his own. The Sword faded from his hands.  
  
"Very good, Neflyte." she spoke from behind him, he spun to face her. "You're better then I thought."  
  
"Why did you attack me?" He asked in a tightly controlled voice.  
  
"I did not," a sly smile touched her lips. "I merely test to prepare you for what is to come."  
  
"And what is that?"  
  
"First, you must find the Sailor Scouts, the last descendants of the Royal families live here. You need to find them and bring them to their powers. The Scouts are needed once again." She turned to go, but paused and tossed a bundle down to his feet. "By the by, you'll need these."  
  
Slowly he bent down and picked up the leather wrapped bundle. Unwrapping the bundle he found four carved wands, each with the astrological symbol for the inner planets. For a moment he toyed with the idea of wrapping them back up in the leather and leaving them on Amis' doorstep. The woman saved his life yes, then she nearly killed him. Surely she didn't expect him to go on some mad quest after that stunt. But a debt is a debt and she said this quest would free him of it.  
  
Neflyte carefully examined the four wands. The four planets represented were Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. Jupiter . . . newly awakened memories swarmed up demanding his attention. A woman with laughing green eyes and soft mahogany hair. He closed his eyes, lost in the painful memories. They had been planning their wedding before the Negaverse came and ripped their lives asunder. Maybe, if he could find her this madwoman's quest would be worth it.  
  
As he held them the wands faded and disappeared from his hands. Panicking he clutched at them, they grew solid again. "Interesting." He muttered. He remembered that the Scouts didn't always carry their wands with them yet they were always there when needed. Cautiously he let the wands go and they faded away. He reached out and summoned one of the wands with his mind. Mercury's wand fell into his hand. Perhaps the sward had a similar spell worked on it. He concentrated on the Sword. The Sword appeared suddenly and he had to shift his posture and grip so that it would not fall to the ground. In doing so the carving of Mercury's symbol touched the crystal in the hilt of the sword and two beams of light shot out and twined around each other. Within the twisting light a tiny illusion appeared of a young woman. Gradually the imaged sharpened into Sailor Mercury standing poised for battle, then the clothing on the figure blurred and changed into a long robe and the figure was no longer Sailor Mercury but Amis. As he stared stunned at the tiny figure the Sword, wand and illusion all faded away.  
  
He started back for the building, staggering slightly from the pain. Now that adrenaline from the fight wore off tiny wounds were sending streaks of pain along his arms and leg. When he got back inside Amis was standing in the middle of the room looking worriedly at his empty pallet. She quickly turned when she heard him shut the door.  
  
"Neflyte? Why did you leave? You could have . . .oh, my!" She hurried over to him and helped him onto a pallet. "You should have stayed here, it's dangerous out there." She continued lecturing him on the dangers of the local fauna, neglecting to mention the dangers the flora provided, as she bound up his leg. He let her fuss over him without complaint as he decided how he was going to broach the subject of Sailor Mercury to her. If he could convince her to becoming sailor mercury then he would be that much closer to finishing this insane quest, and finding his love. Then with a last admonishment she told him to get some sleep and stood to leave.  
  
"Amis, can we talk . . .yes I will get some sleep but I wanted to ask you a few questions about this place." She reluctantly agreed, "How did you get here?" He asked.  
  
"That is a dangerous question to ask around here."  
  
"But not to you." He observed. "If it was then you wouldn't be running a hospital for people sent here to die."  
  
She looked around at the sleeping forms. "I hate this place. I hate every last person who comes in here bleeding and I hate myself for helping them."  
  
"Why?" He asked so softly that is was almost a whisper.  
  
"I never wanted to be a healer, but that's what is expected. When I was first banished here I thought I would finally be free of their expectations but no. They shadow me forever I can see it in the eyes of everyone in this hall." Amis looked up suddenly startled that she spoken so much. "Who are you? Who are you that I feel I should trust you so?"  
  
He didn't know what to say, what could he? That they used to be best friends, centuries ago, before he killed her. Instead he ignored her question and pulled out the sword. "You said that you wanted to look at this?"  
  
"Where was it?" she asked leaning over to look at it, but not touching it.  
  
"You were right, it can protect itself." She put out one hand and ran it over the blade finger a half-inch from the steel but not touching it. "Do you know what it is?"  
  
"No, I've never heard of it. These feel like healing spells." She said again passing her hand over the sword. "Odd to put healing spells in a weapon. And a sword, that is so archaic."  
  
"I though only an ancient artifact could have held the power I felt."  
  
She nodded, passing her hands over it a third time. "I wasn't trained as a mage but I can do a few things. This thing is full of contradictions old, old as the stars and new. Very strong, power beyond imagining but fragile. As if it could just . . . shatter."  
  
"That doesn't help. If anything it just raises more questions." He sighed and let the sword fade away.  
  
Amis sat back on her heels and looked at him "You are just full of surprises. What other secrets are you hiding?"  
  
"But I'm not the only one hiding secrets, an I?" He asked pulling out the Mercury transformation wand "Sailor Mercury."  
  
"Where did you get that?" She asked, "It's a very convincing fake, and done in poor humor."  
  
"I don't believe it's a fake. My mysterious benefactor gave them to me, with a charge. To find the last of the Royal Lines."  
  
"It must the a fake. It has to be." She said, "It has to be." "You tell me." He said. "What can you sense?"  
  
Hesitantly she ran her hand over the wand as she had over the sword, with touching it. "Ice, cold. Dear gods, it is real." She drew back.  
  
"Then take it, become who you where meant to be." He urged.  
  
"No, Neflyte. I cannot be Sailor Mercury. She died a long time ago."  
  
"But you are of the Royal Family aren't you?" He pressed "The ability is in all of your family, not just the firstborn. You are the Lady Mercury and Sailor Mercury."  
  
"Why are you doing this? She sobbed. "Why? Why resurrect the past? It's dead."  
  
"By all rights I should be dead, twice over, but I'm not." He said. "And the past never stays dead. You of all people should know that."  
  
She nodded her head, eyes staring fixedly at the blue wand. Slowly she raised a shaking hand and took it from him. She hesitantly raised it above her head, and as she spoke, her voice became stronger as the power infused her.  
  
"Mercury Power!" Blue light enveloped her body, once it faded she stood as Sailor Mercury in her full battle uniform. She stared at her gloved hands in amazement. Then she curled her arms around herself, falling to her knees. She huddled on the floor, tears streaming down her face.  
  
"Damn you." She whispered. "Damn you to hell." 


	2. 

Pheonix Rising  
  
Created by Naoko Takeuchi  
  
Written by Oniko  
  
Chapter 2  
  
He reached over and tried to hold her. She turned away.  
  
"My sister was the first to wear this uniform in over 300 years." Amis spoke in a soft clear voice, drained of emotion. "Crystal Tokyo was at peace for so long. The Moon Queens held that peace together; no one would've ever attacked the Moon Queen. Everyone was perfectly happy and content, we all thought. I don't know why..." she paused staring off into the distance.  
  
"He brushed her hair out of her face and whispered, "What happened?"  
  
"I was being presented to the Moon Princess when the fighting broke out. Of course, my family immediately sent me to organize an infirmary. It was the only thing I was good for.  
  
"I don't know how long the battle continued. I was lost in a haze of blood and other people's pain. The one thing I remember clearly was my sister. She staggered into the infirmary in her uniform wounded and bleeding. She used to keep her long blue hair in a single braid down her back but it had come loose. I remember she was bleeding from a head wound and her hair was dyed black with her blood.  
  
"'They've killed the Queen.' She yelled. We all just looked at her to stunned to move. She collapsed in my arms. I just sat there holding her as she died." Amis fell silent, turning the blue wand in her hand.  
  
"What happened?" He asked  
  
"They found me, the rebels, after the fight was over. I was locked up with a few other survivors. Within a few weeks, it was over. Crystal Tokyo was shattered and we were sentenced to this hell."  
  
"Did any of the other royal families survive?" He asked gently.  
  
"Some." She said. "Much was destroyed. All of my family is dead. I think the Jovian line was completely wiped out. And the Martian. A large part of the Venesian court is supposed to be here, although I've never met any of them. Also, some minor nobility of the Moon court survived. Mostly because they hid, in the wine cellar rather then fight. Why?"  
  
"The woman saved my life. I am in her debt. This is how she wishes to be repaid, by having all of the Sailor Scouts brought together again."  
  
"But why?"  
  
"I don't know." He admitted. "But it makes me uneasy."  
  
"Why? All they . . ." She tugged self-consciously at her uniform and corrected herself. "We, do is guard the Moon Princes. Not even a real guard. A ceremonial retinue to be dragged out for ceremonies and parades."  
  
"The Sailor Scouts weren't formed to protect the Princess from something as mundane as assassins." He pointed out "You all hove strong magical powers that would be like swatting flies with a cannon."  
  
She smiled at that. "That would be a bit of an overkill wouldn't it? So what will we face?"  
  
"I don't know. I wish that I did. Because that scares me."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"For one thing, every time the Scouts have been needed to fight some enemy. The battles were always fierce and often the Scouts and their allies died defeating their foes."  
  
"But didn't the Moon Princess always bring them back?" she asked.  
  
He nodded. "It's possible with the power of the Silver Imperium Crystal. And the lady enlightened me concerning the Sailor Scouts only. Not the Moon Princess or the Crystal."  
  
"Give it time. She'll probably demand that out of you too." She said. "Now what I don't understand is why she didn't just approach us herself." I mean it's obvious that she knows where the Scouts all are."  
  
"I'll try and remember that next time I see her." He paused and studied Amis' face. Her eyes were slightly unfocused as she thought and tear tracks were still wet on her cheeks. "Will you help me find the others?"  
  
She jumped a little, turning her head sharply to glare at him, them smiled. "You've piqued my curiosity. Yes, I will help you find the others. What other wands do you have?"  
  
He brought out the remaining three wands and laid them out on the blanket. They stayed there. She passed her hands over all of them.  
  
"They're all real." She confirmed. "But not much to go on."  
  
"Not normally no." He agreed. "But what has been normal lately?"  
  
He summoned the sword and selected a wand, Jupiter. The other two faded away. Amis watched him curiously, and jumped when the lights shot out.  
  
Jupiter was a young lady with long brown hair that she kept tied in a ponytail. She had striking green eyes, eyes Neflyte remembered from his dreams. She wore black pants that appeared to be leather, and ankle high green boots. She had a dark green shirt that was cropped short and cut ragged, with black cloth binding her wrists. Amis looked at the picture with eyes open wide  
  
in surprise.  
  
"Leda! I knew she was Jovian but not Jupiter herself!" She said in astonishment.  
  
"You know her?"  
  
"Yes, she always in and out of here. She's Jovian and tends to get in fights frequently. Unfortunately the fights have a tendency to get out of her control and she gets hurt."  
  
"Do you know where we can find her? We must find her."  
  
"No you're not, you are staying right there until you are healed completely. Then, if she hasn't come in on her own, we'll look for her."  
  
Inwardly he rebelled against Amis decision but knew she was right, so he took no action on his own. It was weeks before Amis reluctantly dubbed him fit for travel. He dozed on and off dreams of the Moon Kingdom haunted him, and dancing with a tall woman in a dark green dress.  
  
Finally, they left. Traveling through the thick old forest was difficult at best. The roots extended across the narrow game trail they followed and the branches overhead blocked out most of the sunlight. The few golden beams that filtered through shone on small jewel-like flowers. After a few hours of walking, and no dangerous encounters, they finally reached a large cabin made from rough-cut logs. There were no real windows but places were the logs have been raggedly cut open, dark smoke curled out from the windows the place was deathly silent.  
  
"Is she here?" He asked Amis doubtfully.  
  
"Most likely." Amis took a deep breath and strode inside with him following a few steps behind.  
  
Inside, the tables and chairs were scattered about and broken. The bartender did not appear to be behind the counter, or anywhere else, for that matter. The twenty or so patrons all stood ringed against the walls, silently watching the two people standing in the center. Well one of them was standing anyway. She was hoisting the other, a short but muscularly built man, into the air by the throat with one hand. Lady Jupiter, looking exactly like her illusion, was growling softly into the smaller man's ear. His face was beat red; either from lack of breath or anger it was difficult to tell. He nodded, or rather tried to, every time she paused. Amis watched the two for a short time and then broke in.  
  
"Leda, I'd hate to bother you but we need to talk if you could please speed it up a bit." Blood drained from the man's face. Leda smiled at Amis.  
  
"Don't worry, I'm done here." she lowered the man to the ground and patted him on the head. Then she turned and walked over to Amis, she moved with the grace of a hunting panther. Amis introduced him and Leda smiled at him cheerfully.  
  
When he looked into her deep green eyes memories flooded him. Dancing in the garden, walking through a forest, laughing, talking, touching. His heart ached for their love that once was, and broke when he saw no recognition in her eyes.  
  
Leda led them to a corner and smiled at the men standing there, a smile promising violence. The men quickly found reasons to be elsewhere. Leda plucked a heavy wood table from the ground and set it strait, she then fished around the debris on the ground and found a couple of semi-intact chairs and set them up for the three of them.  
  
"Leda, what was all that about?" Amis asked.  
  
"Well, a certain individual did not think my banishment here was punishment enough, so that incompetent fool was hired to kill me." She said flippantly.  
  
"That's horrible. What did you do to him?"  
  
"The hit man? Nothing much, shoved him around a bit, he forgot about his pay in almost no time flat."  
  
"No, what did you do to the money-man to make him so pissed."  
  
"I have no idea. The hit man wouldn't give me any strait answers." Leda looked thoughtful for a moment, "I can't think of anyone who would try to do something like that, especially since I'm already here. I mean, I'm already sentenced to death when I got sent here. What else do they need to worry about? But my sordid past isn't what you came to talk to me about, what's up?"  
  
"Actually your past is what we came to talk to you about," Neflyte interrupted and gave the Jupiter Transformation Wand to Leda "Lady Jupiter." Her eyes widened in astonishment as she held the small green wand. Then her face clouded in anger and she threw the wand away from her. It vanished as it left her hand.  
  
"The thing should have been destroyed," she said in a grave voice empty of the laughter that filled her moments before, "Everything else was."  
  
"What happened?" He asked softly, aching to comfort her but feeling that he had no right to. She is not the same woman she was in the Silver Millennium. She used to have more control over her temper. This Jupiter had a sense of wildness about her. That she could break into violence at the slightest provocation. Not that his Jupiter wouldn't lose her temper at times he smiled to himself recalling some of their more spectacular fights.  
  
"When the rebellion struck I was away from the palace." She said. "I went back once. It was razed completely. I don't think two stones where left standing together.  
  
She paused studying him carefully. "So where did you get that thing? I was told that they were all destroyed."  
  
Neflyte told her the same story he told Amis. He wanted to tell her more, tell her how much he loved her. But every so often a strange movement or turn of phrase would remind him that this wasn't Makoto he was speaking to. And that hurt more then anything else.  
  
"Leda, the Sailor Scouts are needed again," Neflyte said, "You are needed, join us. Help us find the other two."  
  
"That's ridiculous! The monarchy is gone!" she said loudly drawing looks from others at the tavern.  
  
"If the monarchy is gone then the wands wouldn't work then would it?" Said Amis, being logical, "But they are working, the Scouts are needed. So there could possibly be a remnant of the Moon Family here as well as the rest of the planets' royal families." Leda furrowed her brow and worked through Mercury's reasoning.  
  
"I don't . . . know . . ." she said.  
  
"Jupiter, even if there is no Moon Princess, and maybe the Scouts aren't needed after all. But you are the Lady Jupiter and it is up to you to carry you family's honor." Neflyte said, trying another track. "As the last of your line, I beg you, take up your true position and hold it, for your family." That got her attention. She paused thinking about it.  
  
"Yes, I'll help you." Neflyte blinked and looked at her thoughtfully, that was almost too easy. She smiled excitedly, "Who's next on the list?"  
  
"We have yet to find Mars or Venus." Amis said, also looking at Leda suspiciously. "I have no idea where to look, I don't know any Martians or Venusians."  
  
"I would try to avoid the Venusian royalty if I were you." Leda said. "They are dangerous, they don't play fair. Stick to themselves on the Lake."  
  
"We have to find the Lady Venus, so it would be difficult to find her if we avoid them." Amis pointed out, but Leda talked right over her.  
  
"And I heard that it was one of the Venusians who lead the rebellion. I wouldn't have one of those traitors within ten feet of me if I had any choice about it."  
  
"Perhaps we should finish this later." Neflyte cut in. "It's getting dark and we can work on it tomorrow with clear minds."  
  
"That's a good idea." agreed Amis. Leda volunteered that they crash at her place.  
  
Later that night, after everyone had fallen asleep Neflyte heard the woman calling him again. He followed her voice to a small clearing beneath the branches of a large tree. She stood, cloaked and hooded as always, beneath the large boughs. As he neared her he opened his mouth to ask a question but she turned from him and vanished. The large tree before him began to shake and creak, as he watched a large maw formed in the thick trunk, the edges were jagged and a stench of rotting meat wafted towards him. The tree reached out a large tentacle that wrapped around his waist. The tentacles were supple as a snake but difficult to cut through with the Sword. Another tentacle would grab him as soon as he got one off. Gradually he got pulled closer and closer towards the tree's open maw.  
  
"Jupiter Thunderbolts . . . Crash!" Rang through the night air as a jagged streak of lightning struck down from the heavens at the tentacles that surrounded him. The lightning caused them to burn and smolder. The tree quickly pulled all extended tentacles back into itself.  
  
"Mercury bubbles . . . Blast!" Fog formed around the tree as ice crystals formed in the air, he could hear the sap of the tree cracking as it froze in the rapidly lowering temperature. He quickly braced himself and summoned power from within the sword's crystal.  
  
"Healing Fires . . . Cleanse!" He guided the power through the tempered blade and out toward the tree. As with the vine plant earlier a white light enveloped the tree and when it was gone the tree stood as it was before the fight. He let go of the Sword and looked around for the Scouts but they were gone. However the woman was back, she stood silently watching him.  
  
"You have passed your second test, you may ask me any question." She told him.  
  
"Why do you want the Sailor Scouts gathered?"  
  
"It's not a matter of want but of need, given a choice I would not place this burden on them. There is a danger threatening our system, one that the current government is not ready to face." as the last word left her mouth she faded into the shadows.  
  
Neflyte Glanced up at the night sky. Jupiter hung full in the night sky blocking most of the stars and constellations from view. The positions of the stars he saw were subtly different from where they were on earth or the moon, just enough to give him a sense of vertigo. He turned and headed back to Jupiter's home, a platform building hidden high in the trees. He ran into Jupiter and Mercury on their way down, both in battle dress.  
  
"Neflyte! Are you okay?" Jupiter asked him her words tumbling over each other. "We saw the fight and tried to help but then she came and sent us back to my place I don't know how but she locked us in there until a few moments ago. What happened? Did she do anything to you?"  
  
"I'm fine," he cut in when she paused for a breath. "Thanks to your timely arrival, but we should go back inside and talk, I've some new information." They went inside and he told the girls what he found out from the cloaked woman.  
  
"I'll complain just as loudly as the next person about the republic but they seem competent enough to handle most of the trouble the average citizen faces." Jupiter said setting a tray of tea on the table at which everyone was gathered.  
  
"Perhaps but not with any great speed." Mercury pointed out. "It's seems that once secure they've settled down quickly into bureaucratic waffling that nothing gets done until it's too late to do any good, not for anything really important anyway."  
  
"They settled into control fast then, didn't they have to worry about others deciding that they could replace the Moon Kingdom?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"Not at all. The people were in love with the rebel leaders they accepted their rule without protest." Jupiter said.  
  
"Regardless the Republic is competent enough to deal with the society's current flaws, in some ways better then the Monarchy. So the threat is from outside the Republic." At Amis' words, a dark suspicion began to form in Neflyte's mind. A suspicion that he decided to leave unvoiced.  
  
"Outside? But there are just the Outers. They wouldn't threaten us." Jupiter protested.  
  
"Ladies, I think we should get some sleep if we are going to go see the Venusians tomorrow." Neflyte suggested.  
  
"I still don't think . . ." Jupiter started.  
  
"You're right, it'll be a long way to the Lake we should get what sleep we can." Mercury agreed, ignoring Leda. To emphasize her point she got up and left for the guestroom leaving Leda and Neflyte to finish their drinks.  
  
"How long have you been here?" Neflyte asked Leda.  
  
She looked up at him sharply. "Didn't Amis warn you about asking questions like that?"  
  
"I vaguely recall her saying something to that effect." He said. "I find it unfair, however, that you know so much more about me then I know about you."  
  
"Life's unfair." She replied, draining her cup. "Deal with it."  
  
She stood up to leave, then paused and turned back to him. "Three years. I was sent here with the criminals. No one had any idea that I was royalty."  
  
"Amis said they used this place for political prisoners." He said.  
  
She nodded "That was the first year. Amis was brought with them. After that they started sending criminals here rather then keep them at the local prisons. Now being sentenced to here is as good as death. Especially since our estimable government supplies us with weapons to kill each other off with." She studied him intently. "I came with the criminals." She repeated, then turned and left. 


	3. 

Pheonix Rising  
  
Created by Naoko Takeuchi  
  
Written by Oniko  
  
Chapter 3  
  
"I'm telling you this is not a good idea." Leda said, yet again. As they prepared a small raft to cross the lake. 'And anyway that thing isn't thick enough by half."  
  
"According to my calculations, this will just get us to the island, any thicker and the thing won't float." Amis argued and began to push the loaded raft on to the water. It had taken they several more days to find this spot on the lake. The Venusians lived on a small island in the middle of a lake of acid. The constant volcanic activity corrupted the waters in many places when Io was terraformed by magic and science.  
  
"I would, under other circumstances suggest that you remain here, except that we may need you." Neflyte broke in, sick of hearing them cover the same argument at least twice. "In case she shows up with anymore of her 'tests.' Leda finally nodded in defeat.  
  
"But I still don't like this."  
  
It took them a few hours of frantic work to tease the fickle winds into getting them to the island, by the time that they reached the shore the boat was almost gone and everyone had unfortunately suffered a few minor acid burns for their efforts.  
  
"all right, we're finally at this hellish place, what now?" Leda asked, looking around with a shudder. The trees were dead, probably killed by the acid water. They were obviously once as large as the trees on the mainland but now they were stripped of their bark and bleached white. Their skeletal frames stretched upwards to the noon sky.  
  
"How long do you suppose it'll take for someone to come find us?" Neflyte asked Amis.  
  
"Oh, not long at all." a voice answered from the trees. A young man stepped silently out from the bushes, he held a staff that glowed with a ruddy light and was carved with the entwined symbol of Mars and Venus. "I'd ask what you wanted to be so stupid as to dare the lake except that our Sorceress has already told us. Please come with me." He turned and disappeared between the trees.  
  
"I though Venusians were strategists, not Sorcerers?" Neflyte asked softly. Amis answered with a furrowed brow. "They were. But did you see the symbol of Mars? That line is filled with all kinds of Mystics and Magics."  
  
They shrugged and turned to follow the young man, all will be explained eventually. They found themselves on a small game trail after passing through the screening bushes with less grace then the venusian. The boy was waiting for them just a few feet ahead. Without a word he turned and lead them through a maze of game trails, shallow creeks and flat unmarked, bare forest. At one point Amis paused to examine a crossing of stream and trail.  
  
"You know, I think all this stuff is man-made. The trails don't follow normal animal patterns and there is no sign that they've ever been trod upon by anything other then human feet. The streams are fresh and clear but logically should be just as dangerous as the lake." Neflyte nodded without saying anything. It seems that the Venusians had picked up more tricks in the two thousand years since the Silver Millennium. But maybe it was just this place, it certainty didn't inspire complacency.  
  
A couple hours of aimless wandering passed. For that was what it was aimless wandering meant to confuse anyone coming into the town by circling it a number of times. Neflyte innate connections to the stars showed him this quite clearly and also pointed him unerringly to their landing point. However should they have any need to suddenly leave the stars could only guide and offer no help concerning the acid lake. They were eventually lead into the town  
  
The buildings and streets were all placed in a distinctive defensive patters, the streets that lead between the buildings were never of a constant width and, like the paths and steams outside the city, were a confusing maze of dead ends and streets doubling back on themselves. This time the path was not circling but a direct line, or rather as near a direct line as could be found in this place. Within moments their destination rose up before them. The building was distinctly carved and painted, unlike any of the other buildings with their plain board and stone walls. The pictures were stylistic and used symbols that were ancient in the Silver Millennium.  
  
The building was as direct a copy as could be made of a Planetary Temple. It's outer walls should be depicted the creation of the universe and the line of Queens of the Silver Millennium, inside would be a small shrine dedicated to each of the Gods. From what little Neflyte was allowed to study the carvings were many more then he was accustomed to seeing in the Silver Millennium. Which would make sense, he supposed If they add the Queens of Crystal Tokyo to those of the Silver Millennium. The front entrance lead to a narrow circular stairway, dark lit only by the light that came inform the door and seeped in between the cracks in the boards. A memory rose to him unbidden.  
  
"How are you supposed to see the bloody stairs to get up them?" Jaedite complained loudly after stumbling yet again. Rai sighed.  
  
"You're not supposed to see the stairs, nitwit. This is supposed to be a time of contemplating the void before creation. Now shut up and MOVE!" The other Sailors giggled but quickly stifled it as they entered the Temple to sign the treaty that would allow Earth to join the Silver Millennium.  
  
The Temple at Io wasn't as large and stunning as the other, which was long ago destroyed, but held the same heavy silence. Here was not the elaborate statues of marble and gold, only simpler symbols. The stairs bought them out facing the Shrine of Persephone, Goddess of Pluto. Her symbol a large carved key tied with colored ribbons, green, black, and magenta. They all paused for a moment in silence and contemplation as was customary. Persephone and her children, guardians of time, those who came first and will see the end of eternity.  
  
They turned to face the rest of the Temple. As before the Shrines of the Inners where places at the cardinal points and the Outers at the cross- cardinal. But in the center where before stood a statue of Selene, carved of marble and shone with moonstone and pearls, here there was a circle on the floor painted black. A young woman tended to the fire at the Shrine of Aires, Mars. She was dressed simply in a red and black robe, her back was to them but her hair was the distinct purple-black of the Martian Royalty.  
  
"Raylene, the people you foresaw are here." their guide announced.  
  
"Thank you. You may leave us." She replied without turning from her task. After the young man turned and left. Raylene stood and motioned for them to follow, She led them down a hidden staircase that led to a small living area underneath the Temple. Like the Temple above the living area was poor when compared to the glories of the past.  
  
"But then what isn't?" Raylene asked him, the other girls looked at him in confusion.  
  
"Some things are eternal." he observed, it was fine by him if she wanted to play her games.  
  
"Even they have their cycles of rise and fall." She countered. He smiled a her.  
  
"So they do." He pulled out the red transformation wand and held it up to examine it in the candlelight. "Perhaps it is time to rise again."  
  
She sighed, resigned. "Evil comes, if it isn't already here." She glared at him "And you came also. What are you that I sense both great evil and great good in you?"  
  
Neflyte shrugged, "All I know is that I am bid to find you...you don't seem to surprised to see us?" He still didn't know how to approach the subject of who he truly was with Leda and he wasn't about to let Raylene force it on him.  
  
"I have been cursed with an understanding of the movement of the Fates." She replied mystically.  
  
"You can see the future?" Leda asked in surprise, "I thought no one was allowed to do that?"  
  
"No, I can't see the future... this is much worse." Raylene replied miserably. "would you like some tea?" Then ran off to get it without waiting for any reply. Amis and Leda looked to Neflyte for an explanation.  
  
"Mars was long ago allied with Pluto, that being how Mars got accepted into the Alliance of the Silver Millennium. Some of Persephone's Gifts run in their line and gives them an understanding of time and fate. Not very exact from what I've heard but enough to sense things that could have a strong effect on the timestream."  
  
"I thought all the planets but Earth were in the Silver Millennium." Leda said. Amis nodded.  
  
"But granted, not much survived of the Moon kingdom, even in the memories of our ancestors." She added.  
  
"Earth was to be the last of the solar system brought to the Silver Millennium when it fell." Neflyte said. "The Moon Kingdom didn't all appear at once but after centuries of work by the Daughters of Selene. They strove for peace always among divided and warring kingdoms, slowly it was achieved by forging careful alliances with each of the kingdoms on each planet."  
  
"How do you know so much about the Silver Millennium?" Amis asked.  
  
"Because he was there." Raylene answered for him. She had entered silently with her tray, no one had noticed. "For that matter, all of us were." she added.  
  
"What?" Leda and Amis asked in shock.  
  
"Obviously, he remembers more then any of us. All I know is that I was there, not even a memory."  
  
"We were at the fall of the Silver Millennium. We lead the armies and fought against all hope." And some of us lost sooner then others. He thought bitterly.  
  
"This is unreal." Leda protested.  
  
"It makes a twisted kind of sense." Amis observed. "We know that the souls of the Scouts at the Fall of the Silver Millennium were the same souls that appeared to fight the Negaverse when it appeared. So why wouldn't they, we, be reincarnated again to save the world?"  
  
"So does this stretch on forever?" Leda asked. "Are we reborn whenever the universe needs someone to save it's sorry ass?"  
  
"No." Raylene said, she shrugged, "Or at least we shouldn't, reicarnatin just doesn't work that way."  
  
"So how does reincarnation work?" Leda asked.  
  
"When a person dies their souls are reborn again in different bodies to learn new lessons or repay debts. Only the strongest of emotional ties will bring people together after death." Leda rolled her eyes and Raylene glared at her. "We however seem to be connected and seem to reincarnate as more or less, the same people. That's not right."  
  
"Maybe Queen Serenity's spell..." Neflyte mused aloud.  
  
"Why should that affect us now?" Amis asked "According to legend it was so that her daughter could be reborn to a happier life, not curse her to an eternal battle."  
  
"Perhaps you're right, it was just a thought." He agreed. Raylene looked at him suspiciously but apparently decided that it wasn't worth perusing. "Enough of this, we have one more Sailor to find. Perhaps she will have the key to the Princess." Time to lead the conversation away from the past least questions of his part in it arise. He brought out the sword and last wand.  
  
"That is Myrna." Raylene informed them. "You won't find her on Io at all."  
  
"She did it, didn't she?" Leda demanded jumping up. "I knew it!" Logic may not have ever been the Joveian's strong suit but you can't say she was stupid. Raylene nodded.  
  
"What?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"Myrna was one of the main leaders of the revolt, that's why so many Venusians survived." Raylene said. "Most of them came here willingly and refused to take part in the Republic or hide under the Betrayer's wing. That's what she's called here the 'Betrayer.' I was on Venus when the revolution hit. I saw her afterwards too." Raylene trailed off into silence.  
  
"Well?" Leda prompted. Raylene jumped, jerked out of a wave of memory.  
  
"She was filled with pure evil. A deep blackness surrounded her that I could barely see who she was. No one else could sense the evil."  
  
"We still need to find her." Neflyte said. "If what you say is true then she is the key, no doubt. The agent that the Negaverse is using."  
  
"But she is elsewhere and would never come here." Raylene protested "We could search this moon a thousand times over and never see her."  
  
"So we must obviously arrange some way to go to her, if she won't come here." Neflyte pointed out, the girls blinked at him in disbelief.  
  
"But no one gets off this moon!" Leda said.  
  
"I'm sure it's already arranged." he said cryptically. "Shall we go for a walk?"  
  
"What are you thinking?" Raylene asked suspiciously.  
  
"I think we need to have a chat with our mysterious lady." He said. Realization dawned on Leda and Amis and they quickly transformed into their battle dress.  
  
"C'mon Raylene, lets go pick a fight!" Leda encouraged.  
  
"At regular intervals we are 'tested' by a cloaked woman, incidentally the one who charged me to find the Scouts." Neflyte explained.  
  
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Raylene asked."You, my lovely Mars, are too suspicious." Raylene got the hint and transformed. Within moments they were wandering the skeletal woods once again.  
  
It was almost as if the cloaked woman was waiting for them. Jupiter was the first to spot her. They all silently surrounded the small copse of trees and slowly crept closer. Neflyte got an uneasy feeling that something was wrong when they were several yards away when neither sound nor movement issued from the hooded figure. He glanced at Mars questionably. She shook her head, no evil. He motioned for Jupiter to go in closer. If something went wrong she could probably force her way out of it by pure brute strength, and her lightning if she felt like it. She nodded and dropped all pretense of hiding. Walking strait up the cloaked figure she put her hand up to it's shoulder, and clutched it in surprise as the cloth gave. The spell holding the cloak in it's form vanished and it dropped to the ground that looked oddly bright in the filtered light. Before anyone could react pale, skeletal hands grabbed her and lifted her from the ground.  
  
"The trees!" she yelled, and Neflyte could see now that the hands were in fact animated branches. He signaled at Mercury to encase Leda in her bubbles.  
  
"Neflyte, it won't work like last time." She protested.  
  
"Just do it!" He barked at her, and turned to signal Mars to ready her attack. Jupiter struggled with the grasping trees, thrashing about but the intense cold slowed her down and sapped her energy while having no effect at all on the dry, bone white trees.  
  
"Mars Fire... Ignite!" A burst of magical fire exploded at the base of the trees. It engulfed the dead wood quickly but shied away from the sphere of magical cold, the two opposing magics repelling each other. The burning trees crumbled and fell. And Jupiter fell with them, out of the protective sphere and into the raging inferno below.  
  
"Oh, no! Leda!" Mercury shouted in anguish at seeing her friend fall. "Neflyte, what..."  
  
She turned but he was already moving, in an incredible leap that took him over the firestorm. He caught the falling Jupiter and his momentum carried them safely to the other side. Neflyte staggered with her weight as they came down, closer to the fire then he anticiapated but fortunately not in it. He drew the sword and, in an action that was quickly becoming more then a little routine, used the swordfire to banish the magics. The copse of trees was turned from burning embers of ash and soot back into the silent dead, trees that they were before.  
  
"Oh, very clever. We might survive this after all." a familiar voice said. The cloaked woman appeared, where the magical fire raged just moments before.  
  
"Who are you?" Leda blurted out before Neflyte could ask his intended question.  
  
The woman smiled "That is a long story indeed." She dropped the concealing hood of the cloak revealing silver-white hair tied up in the twin bun and tails of the Royal Family of the Moon. "I am the Moon Princess, Salina."  
  
"You!" Mars yelled "Betrayer!"  
  
"It was for the best..."Salina began.  
  
"The best! Hundreds died because of you."  
  
"Thousands were wasting of starvation and disease."  
  
"What do I care for them? My family is dead." Mars shot back, tears forming in her eyes. Neflyte glanced at the other two.  
  
Leda's inner battle was plain on her face. Over the past couple days she had turned the Moon Princess into a romantic idol of the lost Empire glossing over the it's flaws. Now to find that the surviving Moon Princess was also the evil Betrayer of that idyllic vision.  
  
Amis patted Leda on the shoulder, she had seen this coming and tried to subtly warn her. It didn't really take too many leaps in logic, Amis had explained it to Neflyte nights ago. The only way that the rebels could have possibly gotten anywhere near the palace was to be betrayed by someone high enough to bypass all security measures, one of the Royal family. Then a mysterious woman appears with the Transformation Wands. Only the betraying princess would have survived with the magical strength to summon the artifacts from the dying hands of the Royal families.  
  
"And that mentality is why the rebellion had to happen. All you ever cared about was yourself and your needs and wants, didn't give a damn about the people you were ruling, they were dying and you did nothing."  
  
"Their only purpose is to serve the royal families, why should we care if a few of them die, they breed like rabbits anyway."  
  
"Have you learned nothing from the rebellion? We ruled by consent, not force of arms. We ceased being true rulers centuries ago. Instead everyone thinks like you and that is the worst crime anyone can commit. The ruler betraying her people."  
  
"What make's you different, Salina?" Neflte asked.  
  
"I don't know. I only know that when I saw suffering my heart went out to them. I had to help so I spoke with my eldest sister, I begged her to do something. She laughed and asked why I was out slumming when I should be getting ready for the ball. No one cared but me."  
  
"Great, so we're suck with the Savior Goddess incarnate. Just what I need." Raylene cut in.  
  
"Yes. Actually we are." Amis said.  
  
"What?" everyone turned to Amis.  
  
"Well, think about it. Raylene said earlier that we are the incarnations of the same souls that fought in that last battle of the Silver Millennium and that founded Crystal Tokyo. If that is true then she is the Moon Princess, last of the silver millennium, now, last of Crystal Tokyo. And if the legends about her are true, she is exactly, as Raylene put it, the Savior Goddess Incarnate."  
  
Neflyte turned and studied Salina. Raylene and Amis he identified easily with their earlier counterparts, mostly because of their distinctive hair colors. Salina he didn't peg as Sailor Moon right away because hers was silver white, not the shining gold that he remembered from her last.two incarnations. But there were still some similarities, the expressive blue eyes and delicate bone structure. She also had a determination and a strength that he didn't see much of before. It was there when her friends where in danger, now it surrounded her, supported her, and gave her words far more weight then then she carried before. She was the Moon Princess, fully in her power, even in exile. "Salina, why bring down Crystal Tokyo. Surely there was something else you could've done for the people?" Neflyte asked, guiding the conversation back to it's original topic.  
  
"I tried. But I couldn't have done anything. My sister had to do it, to restore the people's faith in the monarchy. If it was me to do something on my own initiative the people would see me as the moon princess and not my sister, that could be considered treason." The other girls nodded knowingly.  
  
"What do you mean?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"Younger daughters have had convenient 'accidents' for less" she said.  
  
"Court intrigues have become less forgiving since the Silver Millennium." He observed. "So why a peasant rebellion?"  
  
"That was Myrna's idea. I was at my wit's end. Myrna was already in the throws of putting it together and needed a way to get the rebels into the palace. She was right in some ways, the monarchy had become corrupt, drunk on their own power. The people needed a new rule, a democracy. The republic was my idea. Myrna hadn't thought beyond the initial downfall, she seemed to be enamored by the destruction. But it was I who set up the initial system that others have refined and use today."  
  
"What would've happened if you hadn't set that up?" Neflyte asked. "That should be obvious. The planets would be torn by civil war. Different fractions viewing for power, millions beyond count would die. Everything would be destroyed." She answered.  
  
"And the Negaverse could walk in without anyone to stop it." Neflyte finished finally voicing the fears he didn't want to face, Salina nodded.  
  
"But we are here, and we can stop them."  
  
"but we've already lost. Venus is one of them now. How can we hope to win when they can corrupt our own?" Leda asked.  
  
"If they can corrupt our souls, with love we can win them back. They have Venus, but we have Neflyte." Salina answered.  
  
"What do you mean?" Leda asked, then turning to Neflyte, "What does she mean?"  
  
"You have told them?" Salina asked.  
  
"Thank you, no I haven't told them." he said.  
  
"Would you like to tell the story or shall I? She asked.  
  
"I will." He said and closed his eyes, sending his mind back through the centuries. "I don't know what you remember of the Silver Millennium so I shall start at the beginning. Earth was brought into the empire by an alliance of marriage between the Moon's heir and a Prince of the Earth. Unlike most political arrangements the two were truly in love. But not every one on earth was happy with the arrangement."  
  
"Queen Beryl." Amis said.  
  
"You remember?" he asked.  
  
"No. The story has passed down, how she made a bargain with a demon goddess to destroy the Silver Millennium so that she could have the Prince Endymian." He nodded.  
  
"The evil goddess fought in the battle as well, not overtly but for the souls of the Prince's guardians. Found our fears and one by one we fell to her." The girls hissed and stepped away from him. "Then the Queen Serenity cast her spell sending the souls of all to the future, to a new life. But the demon Goddess was not powerless, she summoned to her all those who had turned to her and created a small pocket universe, half-way in and half-way out of this one. The Negaverse. The place was populated by her demons to serve and torment us, as a thousand years passed we forgot the Silver Millennium and forgot that we were ever human." He trailed off as his mind roamed through his memories.  
  
"The Negaverse came back though, when the others were reborn." Salina prompted him.  
  
"We were called back. As our prince was in love with the Moon Princess, each of us found our match among her court. Our hearts, lead us back to them always. But all we knew was the evil goddess's bidding, so we did her will. We tried to kill the Sailor Scouts and capture energy for her to use to conquer this world."  
  
"You're THAT Neflyte?" Leda asked, astonished. "Legend says that you died. Zoicyte sent his minions to kill you when you..."  
  
"Yes, when I lay wounded in the park, trying to protect the girl, Molly. I would've died if it hadn't been for Salina, the rest you know." He said.  
  
"We need you. We need someone who knows the Negaverse to fight them, and to save them. You remember everything, not just bits and pieces." Salina said.  
  
"If you could bring me back from the dead of a thousand years, why do you need me now?" he asked.  
  
"I did not bring you back from the dead I had the Sailor Pluto bring you here from the past, near the moment of death." she said.  
  
"And how come you're being more generous with your answers now then before?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"Because now knowing what's going on will be more helpful to you then figuring it out. Plus I will be joining you as Sailor Moon." with that she pulled out a gold and white transformation wand and showed it to them, at the tip was symbol of a horned, golden moon.  
  
"Where did you get that?" Neflyte asked "Sailor moon used the locket before."  
  
"Many artifacts were destroyed in the war, I needed a new focus for the transformation spells. So I created this." She held the wand over her head and triggered the spells. A pale silver light surrounded her, when it faded she stood before them in battle dress as the others but the colors were drastically different from the origional Sailor Moon colors of vibrant blue, red and gold. Now her colors where white trimmed in pale gold, unlike the others she didn't have a tiara but the horned moon shone clearly. A bright golden light that seemed to be the only real color when compared to her faded uniform.  
  
"That isn't your standard uniform." Neflyte said. She turned to him angrily.  
  
"It was the best I could do, I'm not the Sorceress that the old Queen was when she crated these wands. The magic was almost too strong for me to control and they crafted this, not I."  
  
"So, Her Imperial Highness admits to a weakness, exude me while I go mark the calendar." Raylene said.  
  
"Raylene, be nice." Leda said.  
  
"Don't bother. There was a reason that our young Martian princess was never given any more important tasks then sweeping the temple floor." Salina said, Raylene angrily turned to her.  
  
"Children!" Amis cut in. "If we, all, are going to fight the Negaverse we need to play nice with each other. There is no point in doing their work for them. Now, Salina, I assume you have some way of getting us off this hell to go after Myrna, correct?"  
  
"Off Io, yes." She said "However we are not ready to go after Myrna yet. There's still a few people that we need to pick up."  
  
Author's notes  
  
In case anyone was wondering a 'horned moon' is a cresent moon with the ends turned up like a U, check out any picture of Luna or Artimis for a good example (and some pictures of Serena.)  
  
  
  
Please review I love hearing about people's thoughts on my stories. 


	4. 

Pheonix Rising  
  
Created by Naoko Takeuchi  
  
Written by Oniko  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Like all prisons there is a gate. Io's gate was a small spaceport, very heavily guarded. Usually when something came on this moon it never left. However the guards that where here for the protection of the pilots and the division of goods that came on the ships, came and left as neccessary. "Salina, this is a stupid idea, they are going to kill us." Raylene said, again.  
  
"I think it sound like fun." Leda said, ginning. "I haven't been in a good brawl for at least..."  
  
"Three days." Neflyte reminded her. "And got all of us kicked out of a very nice tavern too."  
  
"That does not qualify as a 'good' brawl." She sniffed.  
  
"So, is everyone ready? Lets go." Selina said as she stepped out onto the open area where the trees has been cut back from the spaceport. Her black cloak was pulled back to reveal a flowing silver-white dress it was torn and stained with blood, and a small golden chain on her brow gave the illusion that the moon mark was a decorative charm. Neflyte and Amis both walked a step behind and to either side of her. Leda and Raylene were the only one's in battle dress and took their places before Salina and further to the sides. Thus they approached the spaceport, positions and mannerism implying an exiled, minor noble of the moon court, and what was left of her retinue.  
  
The spaceport was a large single building. Parts of the area was open to the locals and they walked freely through those areas. The crowds there for the imported food and weapons parted quickly before Leda's and Raylene's glares. It wasn't too long before thy reached the restricted areas. The doors where locked with simple but effective palm and password locks. There were no guards here because magic also protected the locks from any damage. Salina calmly placed one hand on the pad and keyed in the password with the other. The door slid open with a gentle hiss.  
  
The halls behing the sealed door where the same as on the otherside, albet cleaner and much less crowded. In fact it was empty.  
  
"Where is everyone?" Leda asked.  
  
"Mostly out dealing with the crowds. Timing is perfect, there should only be a skeletal guard force back here. You and Raylene should have no problem dealing with them. Don't look so disappointed." Salina said. "This way."  
  
She lead them through the halls and empty rooms to the Officers quarters. Here they treaded more carefully for voices could be heard echoing through the empty corridors. Salina paused before a sharp bend and whispered hurried instructions to Leda and Reylene.  
  
"This is the base commander's office, there will be two guards at the door. Please try not to kill them. Go." The two sailor scouts nodded and casually walked down the bend. The fight didn't last long. Salina and the other two followed when the scuffle had died down. One man lay on the ground. Leda held him pinned down with a foot on his chest and was watching Raylene threaten her target. She had him cowering in the corner and a small flame danced in her hands, his hair and armor already badly singed. This door was also locked with the palm and password lock. Again Salina had no trouble opening them.  
  
Inside the office was sparsely furnished. A simple battered table that served as a desk was overflowing with paper work and an ancient computer hummed and buzzed loudly. Behind a desk a young man with dark blue-black hair was bent over a sheaf of papers, didn't even look up they entered, leaving Leda and Raylene outside to entertain the guards.  
  
"Hello, Love." Salina said, smiling. The young man looked up startled, his serious face broke to a bright smile that light his blue eyes.  
  
"Salina, I missed you." He said standing. "Did you find them?"  
  
"This is Amis, Lady Mercury. And Neflyte, he wields the Sword." She walked over to the young man and embraced him. "this is Derran, Commander of this base."  
  
"Awfully young to be a commander arn't you?" Amis asked bluntly Salina glared at her but Derran only smiled.  
  
"The Powers That Be considered putting me here perminantly was the only way they could saftly get me out of their hair."  
  
"Is everything ready?" Selena asked.  
  
"Whenever you are." He fished aboud under the papers and pulled out a small packet that he handed her "fake I.D.'s and all."  
  
"Good, now for the second part of the show. Neflyte." Derran sighed in resignation, started ripping at his neat uniform.  
  
"I apologize in advance." Neflyte said as he punched Derran in the face. The young commander rolled with the blow as best he could but it still rocked him back and when he looked up again a slight swelling was starting in his eye. Neflyte grabbed his arm and twisted it behind him. Summoning the sword he held it before them with the sharp edge at Derran's throat. "This is akward. The sword is too long."  
  
"But it does look good, it should hold until we get the the ship." Salina said. "Let's go."  
  
They slowly walked out to the landing strip, making sure that lots of people saw them. But with Derran at sword-point no one dared to do anything. Leda and Reylene rained down mass destruction on the equipment for good measure. A few brave souls took a couple of potshots at them but they were easily blocked and otherwise made it to the ship without any incedents.  
  
The ship was a small cruiser, as heavily armed as it's light frame could get, no room for cargo and not much more for passengers. It was conviently left unguarded and unlocked.  
  
"Great, we got a ship. How the hell do we fly this thing?" Raylene asked.  
  
"Oh ye of little faith." Salina said, "You think that I would drag you this far to die?"  
  
"You really want me to answer that?" Raylene asked.  
  
"Neflyte, you think you could pilote this?" Salina asked.  
  
"Yes, it's simlar enough to the control patterns in the silver milenium." He replyed sitting in the pilot's seat the sword once again gone from his hands.  
  
"Good. Derran, bypass the security system quick, before someone thinks to lock out your codes." She ordered.  
  
"Already done my love."  
  
"Neflyte, why are we still sitting here?"  
  
"Working on it..." he trailed off as he concentrated on the controls. "There it is." he flipped a swich and power thrummed about them as the ship's engine came to life.  
  
"Oh, shit. They're attempting a manual override." Derran said.  
  
"Well, stop them!" Salina said. "Neflyte hurry."  
  
"I don't know how, I'm not a computer tech." Derran said.  
  
"Let me try something." Amis said. She stepped over to the computer teminal but was thrown away as the ship lurched forward into the air.  
  
"Sorry about that." Neflyte said "This is going to be one of my less graceful takeoffs."  
  
"Don't worry about it." Amis said as she hauled herself to her feet. She strapped herself in at the teminal and began hacking though the security systems computers. "This should slow them down a bit but I can't say for how long... the tech they got down there is good."  
  
"Give me eight minuts and we'll be out of range of ground to air."  
  
"You have seven. Damn, six."  
  
"Hold on." The engins roared and the ship lunged forward. The metal whined in protest at the pressure of air and gravity. Minuts crawled by as the ship gained the spead to break out of the gravity well. An explosion rocked the ship to the side.  
  
"Five and fifty." Amis corrected.  
  
"Thanks for the warning," Neflyte said.  
  
"Damages?" Salina asked.  
  
"Weapons' hull. Everything else works." He said. "Everyone buckle in, switching drives in five...four...."  
  
"Just do it, damn it, before they-" Raylene was cut off as Neflyte switched from the atmospheric to the inter-planetary drive. The ship shudderd in protest, the gravity well pulling them back, then it shot forward, breaking free, throwing everyone back against their seats.  
  
"Where are we going?" Leda asked.  
  
"We have one last person to pick up." Salina said. "Jaedite. He is encased in crystal on Ceres, a mining expidition found him. Hopefully we can get to him first and heal him. Then we will have the advantage."  
  
"That won't be an easy task." Neflyte said.  
  
"Why not?" Raylene asked. "wave the sword around, set him on fire, everything's fine."  
  
"That would kill him." Salina said. "The spells in the Sword are very specific, they can only destroy the evil in one's soul if that person is willing. If they are not willing to dissacociate with the evil then they will be killed in the process. We need to convince him to join us, then we can heal him."  
  
"How are we going to free him?" Neflyte asked "Queen Beryl encased him in a solid piece of rock."  
  
"We'll have to decide that when we get there. First we better rest up. Myrna's going to want him and there may be a fight."  
  
How close are they going to cut this?" Neflyte asked. They all huddled around Amis's terminal, watching as the miners continued to work, long past the time the advisory warnings were telling them to pack up. They were all ready to go, just need to wait for the miners to leave, the fewer witnesses the better. Only Salina wore her scour uniform, the other girls wore clothes that they felt more comfortable in.  
  
"As close as they can." Amis answered. "It's a calculated risk. The sun storm could wipe out preexisting channels of the more delicate metals, so they want to get as much profit before t hits."  
  
"Well if they take much longer we'll get fried instead, pulling this stunt." Raylene said. "Salina your plans are going to get all of us killed one of these days. Are you trying to finish off the Royal lines?"  
  
"Yes dear, this is all just an elaborate set up as an attempt on your life." Salina said sweetly.  
  
"There they're leaving." Amis said. "We have fourty-five minuts to get him and get back here."  
  
"Lovely, less then an hour to. . ." Raylene grumbled.  
  
"Shut up and move." Leda said emphasising her words with a shove. When the mining colonies were created all that had been done was place simple spells to hold in an atmosphere and basic temperature control. The air was heavy and musty, a little to much carbon dioxide then was comfortable. Didn't really matter, the solar storms that swept in wiped out the spells and they'd need to be recast. The storms carried a number of different radiation that played havok on anything caught unprotected. The miners were off placing their equiptment and goods under a barrage of protective spells that would most likely be worn thin after the storm had passed. Their ship was already safe under layers of spells that Salina had previously prepared and stored. All they had to do was get Jaedite and run back for the cover of the ship. Finding Jaedite was not difficult, the miners that found him had left him where he was.  
  
"So how do we get him out of there?" Leda asked looking in at the man through the cloudy crystal. He looked exactly as Neflyte had seen him last, burned and beaten. "How did he get in there?"  
  
"He failed to defeat the sailor scouts. When he challenged them and lost the battle. At the last moment he teleported back to the negaverse." Neflyte said.  
  
"I always thought that he died." Leda said.  
  
"We're not that easy to kill." Neflyte smiled. "And, well, Queen Beryl was not very pleased and trapped him in there."  
  
"Didn't any of you die like you were supposed to?" She asked.  
  
"Didn't any of you?" He shot back. She giggled.  
  
"Shure we did. We just keep coming back. And you'll never be rid of us."  
  
"Got some good news and some bad news." Amis said. While they had been talking she had been studing Jaedite with a small but powerful computer that she found in the ship. "Good news is this thing is hollow and our Jaedite is in a type of suspended animation."  
  
"That means that he's still living right?" Leda asked.  
  
"Yes, he's still living. Bad news, this isn't crystal,  
  
it's glass. Theoretically we can free him by placing pressure on key points and breaking it around him."  
  
"That doesn't sound too difficult." Derran said.  
  
"Like I said it's glass not crystal." she said.  
  
"So?" he asked  
  
"So, glass is not a solid, it's liquid, and it had warped. Look here." She pointed to a spot that appeared to be flat but had minute ripples on the surface. "the vibration of the strike may turn unexpectedly and shear into Jaedite. If we're lucky it won't hit anything vital."  
  
"You said it was hollow though, shouldn't there be a cusion of air to protect him?" Salina asked.  
  
"The glass is flush against his skin, like it had been poured around him." She said "It will take a bit more time before I can calculate the best points to strike."  
  
"Hurry, Time is something that we don't have." Salina said. They could all feel the pressure of the storm bearing down on them. Amis bowed her head back down to the computer, and it's calculations. Everyone stood watching her or Jaedite, the playful banter gone, it was getting too close to the storm breaking. Eventually her tapping stopped and she looked up.  
  
"I have it." She said. "We'll need to have an exact strike in several places, as I said earlier, miss and Jaedite could end up with and arm or leg sheared off. So who wants to try?"  
  
"I will." Derran said, he stepped forward and was no longer in the torn uniform, but an elaborate armor from the Silver Milleniam, and a deep midnight blue cloak hung from his shoulders. "what do you want me to do?"  
  
Amis nodded and pulled out of one of her pockets an small laser pointer and set it on the first point. Derran studied his target for a moment and a single rose materialized in his hand. He threw the rose at the glass and hit the target Amis indicated exactly. A chip broke of the top and the rose faded away to reappear in his hands.  
  
"That's it?" Raylene asked "We're gonna be here all year at that rate."  
  
"We need to prepare a striking platform first, then we can do the real work. Hit here." Amis said. And so they continued working, strinking off chips untill it formed a relatively flat surface just above Jaedite's head. Finally, Derran hit the platform dead in the center and the glass split open, freeing Jaedite without any additional harm. He collapsed from the sudden lack of support, muscles spasaming, blood pouring out of the cuts on his body. He lay there gasping for breath.  
  
"How convienent. You did my work for me." a soft male voice spoke from behind them. They turned to see three figures materialize. Two wore the grey, color trimed uniforms from the negaverse. The first one had pale silver blond hair and grey eyes. The man to his left had long dark blond hair pulled back from his face. The third, a woman stood on his right and wore what could have been a scouts battle dress but black, where it should be white. Trimmed in orange and gold this could only be Sailor Venus. They came forward next to Jaedite and the others drew back, creating a distinct line with Jaedite gasping in the middle.  
  
"Salina." The pale haired man nodded his head. "So good to see you again, cousin."  
  
"Malakai. I was so hoping that someone had taken the oportunity to place a dagger between your ribs."  
  
"No such luck." He looked at the others arrayed against them. "What a lovely little ragtag band you have here. Don't you realize it's pointless, you're already too late."  
  
"You always were an arrogant ass." She said "Don't you relize yet that I always win in the end." A groan distracted them, they turned to watch Jaedite as he gathered his streangth and stood. He looked around warily, but the only person that he recongnized was Neflyte.  
  
"Neflyte, where's Queen Beryl? Has she forgiven me?" He asked.  
  
"No, Jaedite, she died a long time ago." Neflyte told him "We freed you. Come with us."  
  
"Don't listen to him Jaedite. He bretrayed us. Look at him allied with Sailor Moon and her Scouts." Malakai said, pointing at Salina. Jaedite turned to focus his attention to Salina. Through a pain filled haze he took in her faded gold and white uniform.  
  
"That is not Sailor Moon. Now I don't know who you people are. But I do know who Sailor Moon is, and that is not her." He turned and staggered toward Neflyte. "You freed me against Queen Beryl's wishes, I don't know why but I will go with you."  
  
"No, you will not." Malakai said. And the Negaverse played it's wild card.  
  
"Dark Fire... Ignite." Raylene, who had been standing next to Neflyte blasted Jaedite with black fire that shot from her hands and enveloped him, he screamed and collapsed. Before any one could react she sprinted the few feet to Malakai and they  
  
dissapeared in a transportation spell. Amis ran forward to Jaedite's prone body.  
  
This chapter had the most research involved. FYI Sun storms are a real occurance. The atmosphere protects earth from most of them and where the atmosphere is the thinnest you get the aurora borealis, I try to illustrate a really close look at it in the next chapter. Sometimes a really strong storm will get through and cause major power outages, Neat huh? Also, Jaedite was freed from his prison by a method called flint knapping, only on a much bigger scale. Flint knapping is the process of hitting one stone against another to create really sharp shards that early humans (and anthropologists who have nothing more to do with their time then figure all this out) used to create useful things like arrowheads and knives. Obsidian, a glass (which really is a liquid) is one of the sharpest substances on earth. It has an edge of six molecules wide and is also the most difficult to shape.  
  
Sailor Moon says: See, you learn something new everyday. Even when doing fun stuff like reading Sailor Moon fanfiction.  
  
Sorry, couldn't resist.  
  
And please, please, please review. 


	5. 

Pheonix Rising  
  
Created by Naoko Takeuchi  
  
Written by Oniko  
  
Chapter 5  
  
"We have to leave, now, we have barely enough time got back to the ship." Salina said.  
  
"He's still alive." Amis said. "We can't leave him here."  
  
"I could carry.." Leda offered.  
  
"No, the pain alone will kill him." She said. "Neflyte, you need to heal him, now."  
  
"It might kill him. Unconcious and mostly dead is not exactly willing." he said.  
  
"He said he'd go with us." Salina reminded them. "That may be enought to qualify. But hurry."  
  
"Healing Flames....Cleanse." These fires burned over Jaedite with a soft silver light. It was unsettleing to watch them consume his body and recreate it. Flesh blackening and peeling back from the bone only to flow back over it healed and whole. Within seconds it was done and Jaedite lay, gasping on the ground.  
  
"Leda, grab him lets go." Salina ordered, but Leda only stared at Jaedite.  
  
"I not..." She started.  
  
"We don't have time to argue, that storm will be here any minute." Neflyte said. "Just do it."  
  
Reluctantly she nodded and grabbed Jaedite's unconcious form. With one swift move hoisted him up on her shoulder. They headed back to the ship as quickly as was possible considering the rough terrain.  
  
"Salina." Derran slowed to pace beside her. "What's the chances that Raylene could've tampered with the ships protective spells?"  
  
"None, but not for lack of trying." She said grimly "I wouldn't let her go near them and locked them to anyone but me."  
  
"Good." He said looking up, "almost there."  
  
As Derran said that a sheet of blue light exploaded in front of them throwing Neflyte and Amis to the ground.  
  
"But not quite!" A high pitched voice shrieken from above them. A demon floaten in the air. It's short spikey hair and sexless body was iridecent white. Swirls of pale colors shifted and swirled in a mezmerizing patterns. It spread its hands and beams of yellow light rained down on them.  
  
Salina stood calmly amid the danger, she raised her fingers to the crecent moon-mark that glowed with power.  
  
"Moonlight. . . " She focused the power and a wind that touched no one else blew through her hair. She opened her eyes and pointed her fingers, glowing with golden light at the demon.  
  
"Illumination!" A beam of light shot from her fingertips. The light was so bright that everything around her seemed dark. Where her attack struck the demon it fell screaming from the sky.  
  
"Mercury Power!"  
  
"Jupiter Power!" Neflyte turned to see that Leda had set Jaedite down to go after the demon.  
  
"No! Leda!" He shouted "Get Jaedite back to the ship. Salina, Derran, go wit her. Don't let anything near them. Amis, with me."  
  
"Neflyte, I would much rather be with Jaedite. Wouldn't Salina or Derran be a better choice? Mercury asked, coming up beside him. He shook his head.  
  
If there are more demons about then they would be better off guarding Jaedite, and Leda since she cannot act encumbered." Amis sighed sighed, resighened but she didn't really expect any different a response.  
  
They found the demon trying to crawl out of a small narrow ravine hat it had fallen into. It saw them approaching and screamed in outrage. Sheets of green flames sprung up on both sides of them.  
  
"Mercury bubbles. . . blast!" The moist air froze into frost and ice on the rocks. The demon slipped and scrambled trying to find a perch for another attack. Neflyte summoned the sword and circled the demon, trying to get a better vantage without slipping on the icy stones.  
  
"Healing fires. . . Cleanse!" The demon screamed as the silver flames burned it to a fine grey ash. "C'mon lets get back to the ship before the storm gets here."  
  
Salina keyed open the door and spells letting them into the ship. Once inside the protective barriers the weight of the wild magic lifted off of them.  
  
"Oh, gods." Neflyte turned around at the soft whisper to see Amis still outside the door, staring off into the distance. When he stepped out to pull her inside he saw it. Not even in the silver millenium had he ever seen a striking sun storm. Curtains of iridecent light, rained from the sky, where it touched the stone melted and scorched. With a force of will stronger then he knew he had he tore his eyes away from the beautiful sight and pulled Amis inside.  
  
"Seal it now." He told Salina. if one of those dancing curtains of light found even a sliver of an opening all of them would be gone and the ship, twisted slag. She pressed her hands to the closed door whispering the last of the spells to seal them inside.  
  
"There. We're safe." she said.  
  
"What now?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"Now we wait." she sighed. "I hate waiting."  
  
"Um, that's great and all. But what am I supposed to do with him?" Leda asked indicating Jaedite, still unconcious over her shoulder. That jerked Amis awake, she had looked dazed and lost since Neflyte pulled her inside the ship.  
  
"We'll need to get him strapped in someplace where he can rest undisterbed." she said. "He should sleep for about a week, maybe more."  
  
"After you're done with that, join us up front, we'll need to try and second guess the negaverse's next move." Seline added.  
  
It was an hour before Amis finally finished with fussing over Jaedite. When she and Leda joined the others in the front room, Darren was at the computer terminal scanning through what appeared to be news files. Serena and Neflyte were both resting in the passenger seats, looking serious and thoughtful but neither saying a word to the other.  
  
"How is he doing?" Neflyte asked, as Amis and Leda took the other two passenger seats.  
  
"He's fine, The spells in the sword are some of the harshest healing spells I've ever seen." Amis said.  
  
"That's not a normal reaction though." Salina said. "I've used it before on other people and they were usually up and about within a few minuts, at worst hours."  
  
"It's not the healing." Neflyte said. "It's remembering, that traps him."  
  
"How do you mean?" Amis asked.  
  
"The spells heal the damage that the negaverse inflicted on our minds, resurfacing things that were previously forgotton." Neflyte said "Reliving a thousand years takes a long time."  
  
"Salina, what was it that you wanted us to talk about?" Leda asked.  
  
"We need to figure out the negaverse's next move." she turned to Neflyte. "What were they trying to do last time?"  
  
"Open a gate to this world." he said. "A massive one that would let Beryl's armies of demons into this world."  
  
"How did you, and the others cross between the two before? If you didn't have a gate?" Leda asked.  
  
"A small, temporary gate or simple teleportation spells. Neither one took much energy but what we were tying to accomplish before takes vast amounts of it and a very powerful focus." he said.  
  
"Which brings us to the bad news." Derran said, they all turned to look at him.  
  
"They've been collecting the energy for several months now. All the signs are there, vast numbers of people experiancing exhaustion, worst cases are in comas of apparently no cause, a few have died already." He waved his hand at the glowing screen. "No one has a clue, they haven't made any connections at all."  
  
"So they still need a focus." Salina said, she turned to Neflyte "How powerful an artifact do they need to use as a focus?"  
  
"Very powerful. Beryl had a scrying orb that wasn't powerful enough, and that thing was ancient in the Silver Millenium." he said. Salina sniffed.  
  
"Scrying spells don't temper a focus as strong as other spells can, it doesn't matter how old it is it won't amount to much."  
  
"I'm not a sorcerer, I don't know the technical details. Only what Beryl raved about in her less sane moments." he said "But basically that's why she wanted the silver crystal so badly, it was powerful enough."  
  
"So what is as powerful as the Silver Crystal and is just laying around waiting for someone to come pick it up?" Derran asked. Every one paused a moment in thought.  
  
"How about the Dark Crystal?" Leda asked. "It supposedly took two Silver Crytals to destroy it."  
  
"There's a second Silver Crystal?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"No. Just the one." Salina said.  
  
"But she just said..."  
  
"Long story. Now is not the time to go into it. But believe us when we say it took two to destroy the Dark Crystal but there is only one Silver Crystal." she said. "And, no, the Dark Crystal was definatly destroyed."  
  
"But if you could bring him back from the past, could they summon it?" Leda asked.  
  
"No. Time travel is worse then the gate spells. If they had the focus to cast one of those they wouln't need to bother with summoning the Dark Crystal." She said. "So Sailor Pluto's staff would work, but it's safe where it is. Any of the Outer's artifacts technically would work for that matter. but again they're safe where they are."  
  
"How about the artifact buried on Io?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"What artifact buried on Io?" Salina asked.  
  
"Not long before the end of the Silver Millenium. A sorcerer created an artifact that was filled with evil and was so powerful that it couldn't be destroyed." Neflyte paused in thought trying to remember half heard rumors.  
  
"What was it?" Leda asked.  
  
"I never heard a description of it but it was supposed to contain some immensely destructive spells." He said.  
  
"How destructive?" Salina asked.  
  
"There's a reason nothing can live on Io." He said. Salina's eybrows rose.  
  
"Really? After two thousand years that is one nasty spell." She said. "And they couldn't destroy it at all?"  
  
"I vaguely recall some worry about potential backlash." he said. "Zoicyte or Malachite would know more about it then I, they were powerful mages with an intrest in it."  
  
"Would Jaedite know?" Amis asked.  
  
"No." Neflyte shook his head. "Jaedite was a healer, he wouldn't know much more about this then I would."  
  
"Definatly sounds like it fits the bill." Derran commented. "So we'd best get to it before they do."  
  
"Dificult, no one knows where it is." Neflyte said. "Everyone knew that is was on Io somewhere. but no one survived Io long enough to find it, until recently anyways"  
  
"That's good right. If no one knows where it is then they'd have no more luck then we would." Leda said.  
  
"Not exactly." Amis said. "They have Raylene, remember, she can sense evil and lead them right to it."  
  
"So what are we going to do?" Leda asked  
  
"Salina, arn't there spells that can detect evil?" Neflyte asked.  
  
"Yes, but they don't have the. . . finess that Mars has with her natural ability. It will take a lot longer to pinpoint the spot, especially with the number of people on Io that would qualify as evil." Salina said thoughtfully "maybe if we alternated detect evil with scrying spells. . ."  
  
"I'd hate to be the one to bring this up but how are we suppose to get back on Io?" Amis said. "The only safe place to land is the spaceport and that isn't exactly a safe place anymore."  
  
"Maybe with some illusions we could . . . I don't know, do something." Salina said, she rubbed her forehead with one hand. "We need another Sorcerer in this group. Or I'm going to be joining Jaedite unconscous."  
  
"Love, I am good enough to manage a few illusions." Derran said. "If we do them ahead of time and tie them into the ship it should give us some time to recover from the energy drain."  
  
"True. The trouble would be getting past the anti-magic wards about the port." she said.  
  
"What if we don't go in though the port, fake a crash with the appropriate fire works." Derran suggested.  
  
"From what I've seen of the terrain, any landing not in the port would be a crash." Neflyte said "It's too heavily forested, this ship would be shreaded."  
  
"I didn't say it would be easy." he said.  
  
"It could work." Seline said. "Neflyte, do you think you could pull it off?"  
  
"Since I'm the only one who can fly this thing I had better be good enough, hadn't I?" he said.  
  
"With me and Derran working together on the illusions, we should be ready in about, ten, twelve hours." she said. "We'll need alot of detail, to look covinceing, plus some time for recovery. Say a full ship's day."  
  
"We'll need about that for the storm to clear." Amis reminded them. "You can't work spells with the wild magic still in the air."  
  
"Will you please stop coming up with these complications!" Salina snapped. "Sorry, you're right of course. But fifty hours are too long to just be sitting here. They'd be there and gone long before we're ready to leave here. May be if we..." Salina trailed off in a babble of magical- technical terms, directed at Darren, that left Neflyte far behind. After a few minuts they decided on what would work. Derran would work the illusion spells and tie them into strips of scrap metal under Salina's direction. After the storm had cleared Salina would attatch them to the ship's hull at key places. Neflyte would take off once the spells were firmly in place and Salina would begin her search as soon as they got within range. All together about thirty hours. Thirty long hours.  
  
Neflyte, filled with nervous energy passed the time pacing around the ship going from person to person. Jaedite was sleeping as peacefully as anyone could considering the nature of his dreams and didn't awaken. Derran and Salina were in what passed for a cargo hold, small compared to some but large enough for their purposes, everytime he went by it was filled with bright flames, exposions and billowing smoke. Leda was trying to make something edible out of the ships food stores. She complained bitterly but came closer to it then anyone else he knew of. Amis was fiddleing with her computer. He quickly learned not to ask her what she was doing because she told him, in detail. He would then go lay down, trying to sleep, but within moments would be up pacing beside Jaedite. After several circuts he came up to the storage hold to find the illusions gone. Salina and Derran were sitting on the floor and between them were arrayed five metal strips.  
  
"Are the illusions finished?" He asked them. Derran nodded tiredly.  
  
"The air should clear enough in about five or six more hours. Then we can leave." Salina said.  
  
"Amis said that it won't clear compleatly for another ten." Neflyte said.  
  
"We don't have that long." Salina said "If we could leave now I would do it, but we can't so I must wait." She collected the metal strips and walked out of the hold past Neflyte.  
  
"Patience is a virtue." He said softly. She spun to face him.  
  
"I waited ten years to find someone to bear that sword." She snarled. "I met with failure after failure knowing that the Negaverse was bearing down on us. Do not lecture me about patience." She turned and stormed down the corridor. Neflyte watched her go when he turned back to say something to Darren but he had passed out.  
  
"Raylene was right about one thing." He muttered. "Salina's going to work us to the grave." He left to tell Amis that she had another patient.  
  
Ten hours later they were preparing to enter Io again.  
  
"This sucks." Leda said. "I finally get off that hellhole and here we're going back again, voluntarily. We definatly qualify as insane at this point. I hope you all know."  
  
"Yes, Leda, you've been saying that, repeatedly." Derran snapped. "Let me remind you that if the Negaverse gets this artifact then the rest of the solar system will be worse off. Where are you going to live then?"  
  
"Ummm. Anywhere but here?" she suggested.  
  
"Will the two of you shut up." Neflyte cut in. "I need to concentrate." he took the ship off of auto-pilot and let the power of the stars fill his mind. "Everybody make shure you straps are secure."  
  
"I need to make shure Jaedite. . ." Amis began.  
  
"He's fine Amis, you checked on him three times in the last ten minutes." Salina said.  
  
"Derran, the first spell." Neflyte said as winged the ship in on an errant course toward Io. Derran picked up the small ball of twisted metal and whispered into it. It contained pieces of the spelled scraps that he was working on earlier and allowed him to trigger the spells from saftey inside the ship. Magic hummed softly and first illusion disguising their ship as a freighter was in place. Neflyte keyed the mayday signal and spun by the small spaceport. The base sent out warnings to leave the area or be shot down.  
  
"My, friendly people aren't they?" Neflyte asked. Derran shrugged.  
  
"Standard procedures." An explosion rocked them to the side.  
  
"Do they always aim for the same place, key four." Neflyte said.  
  
"First shot yes, cripple any potential attackers." A few whispered words and and the fuel and firearms in the weapons hull that no longer existed burst into billiant fireworks. They could hear explosions as the missles hit the illusion barrier but didn't penetrate to the real ship underneath.  
  
"That's two. And three." Neflyte killed the mayday and any non- necessary power systems. "Key five."  
  
The last spell muffled any signs that their ship was actually flying on its own accord. Hopefully fooling the base moniters into thinking that they were dead and crashing. Neflyte obliged them by pushing the ship into nose dive into the trees and turning slightly into an apparrently uncontrolled spin that took them out of the immediate range of the base sensors. The ship slid into the tree tops he pulled up out of the dive to tear along horizontally through the thin upper branches. As Neflyte shifted his focus from the guiding stars to the trees infront of them he realized that they had a problem.  
  
"Derran! kill the illusions." he shouted.  
  
"What?" Derran asked started.  
  
"Kill the illusions of we'll ram head first into a tree."  
  
"Which ones?"  
  
"All of them but five. Hurry, I can't see." Derran fumbled a bit with the metal ball. Magic hummed and the screen in front of Neflyte cleared. He angled the ship and dove into the trees. The branches scraped anong the hull and metal screamed in protest. Within moments the small ship was winding it's way in between the massive trees. Often there was barely enough room to manuver and the ship slammed and jumped it's way rom tree to tree. Metal whined and ripped they lost part of one stubby wing and the burned out weapons hull was scraped along the rough bark of a massive oak. The passengers inside clung to the cusioned straps that held them in their seats and wished that they were elsewhere. After an eternity they reached the river.  
  
A wide strip of clean water the ran from one lake to another. Neflyte turned the ship strait again and glided smoothly up the river. He killed what was left of the engines and coasted to the riverbank with a gentle bump. As soon as the ship stopped Amis struggled out of her seat and ran to check on her charge.  
  
"I can't believe we're still in one piece." Leda said.  
  
"Lets get out of here, before someone comes to investigate." Salina said. "Leda go grab Jaedite."  
  
"That's all I am, a packhorse." Leda muttered as she unbuckled herself.  
  
"Neflyte, about how far away is Amis' home from here?" Salina asked. He paused to let the study the stars.  
  
"About half a day's walk from here." he replyed.  
  
"Good. We leave now." 


End file.
